Not Too Busy To Write

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Not Too Busy To Write episodes

January 04, 2023 Not Too Busy To Write - Series 6 coming soon
Not Too Busy To Write will be back for a new series on January 18th. Guests for series 6 include memoirists, debut novelists, non-fiction authors and much more. The series kicks off with best selling crime author Janice Hallett and oh my goodness is it a great episode about writing outside of the box. See you in two weeks for series 6!
Want to write a non-fiction book proposal this year? Penny's first online workshop of the year is on January 11th at 7.30pm. Tickets are just £39
Write Your Book Proposal - eventbrite
www.pennywincerwrites.com/workshops
Penny on Instagram - @pennywincer
2 min
December 14, 2022 Lindsey Kelk on writing Romantic Comedies
Lindsey Kelk is a Sunday Times bestselling author of over 20 novels. Her latest The Christmas Wish is a hilarious and delightful time loop story set during a family Christmas. Lindsey and I chat about subverting Hallmark movie tropes, being a full time novelist in a much maligned genre and the realities of being working class in the publishing industry.
The Christmas Wish is a joy and is out now in hardback.
Links
The Christmas Wish - Lindsey Kelk
The Change - Kirsten Miller
Her Majesty's Royal Coven - Juno Dawson
Book Lovers - Emily Henry
This Time Tomorrow - Emma Straub

Book Proposal Group January 2023 - pennywincerwrites.com/bookproposalgroup
Penny's weekly newsletter

You can find Lindsey on instagram - @lindseykelk and on Twitter @LindseyKelk
Lindsey on Facebook

Penny on Instagram - @pennywincer

1 hr 1 min
November 30, 2022 Novelist and Discoveries Prize Judge Chibundu Onuzo
Chibundu Onuzo is a novelist whose first book was published when she was just 21 years old. Her third and latest novel Sankofa was short listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction Futures Prize, an Amazon book of the year and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick in 2021.
We talk about the inspiration behind Sankofa, how Chibundu's writing process has changed over the past 10 years and her role as a judge of the Women's Prize Trust Discoveries 2023.
Links
Sankofa - Chibundu Onuzo
Women's Prize Discoveries Prize 2023
The Spider King's Daughter - Chibundu Onuzo

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Penny on Instagram - @pennywincer

38 min
November 23, 2022 Writing an illustrated interiors book with Emily Henson
Emily Henson is an art director and stylist and the author of five books. Her latest is Create: Inspiring homes that value creativity over consumption. In this episode Emily talks about her journey from stylist and blogger to author and the close collaborative, relationship she has with her publisher. It's a really fun and informative episode for all those who would love to know exactly what goes in to producing and writing gorgeous and thoughtful illustrated books.
Links
Create - Emily Henson
Life Unstyled - Emily Henson
Life Unstyled Blog
Life Unstyled on Instagram
Emily Henson's Styling portfolio

Penny Wincer's Newsletter - pennywincerwrites.com
Penny of Instagram - @pennywincer
43 min
November 16, 2022 What is publishing a book really like?
Ali and Penny are back together talking about the experience of publication. It has been three months since Ali's book The Last Days came out and it seemed like a great time to have a debrief and discuss the highs and lows, the hard work and the realities of publishing. We talk about reviews, proofs, blurbs, news events that drown out book publicity and the things outside of our control when publishing. We also take a little look ahead to our next publications.
Links
Strandings - Peter Riley
Lipstick Traces - Greil Marcus
An Angel at My Table - Janet Frame
Foster - Claire Keegan
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
Sign up to Penny's newsletter here - pennywincerwrites.com
Ali Millar on Instagram @ali_millar_writes
Penny Wincer on Instagram @pennywincer
41 min
November 09, 2022 Winnie M Li on complicity and power in fiction
Winnie M Li is a Taiwanese-American author and activist originally from New Jersey. Her second novel Complicit is about a film lecturer in an obscure American college who once was on the cusp of a major film career. When she is approached by an investigative journalist about an alleged incident that occurred 10 years earlier, memories of youthful ambition and guilt arise.
Winnie talks in this episode about how the lure of writing about film was what compelled her to write a second (very different) novel about sexual assault. About how using the framework of the protagonist telling her story to someone else from the distance of 10 years, gave her an interesting perspective to play with. We also talk about the arts grants that have allowed her to pursue her writing.
Links
Complicit - Winnie M Li
Dark Chapter - Winnie M Li
Arts Council England Grants
https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ProjectGrants
https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/dycp
Winnie M Li website
Instagram - @winniemli

You can sign up to Penny's newsletter here
Penny on Instagram @pennywincer
37 min
November 02, 2022 Shakaila Forbes-Bell on Big Dress Energy
Shakaila Forbes-Bell is a fashion psychologist and the author of Big Dress Energy: How fashion psychology can transform your wardrobe and your confidence. It's a book that is a pleasure to read, filled with insights and backed up by rigorous research.
In this episode Shakaila talks dressing our different identities, the challenges of switching from academic writing to creative non-fiction, making academic research more widely available to the everyday reader and some of the difficult decisions she made around creating time to write this book, including being honest about her chronic pain condition and her role raising her sisters children.
Big Dress Energy is out now.
Links
Big Dress Energy - Shakaila Forbes-Bell
Big Dress Energy Podcast

56 min
October 26, 2022 Margaux Vialleron on writing about friendship and food
Margaux Vialleron is a French born, London based writer. Her debut novel The Yellow Kitchen centres around the friendship of three very different women over the course of a year, with a kitchen and the food prepared within it at its heart.
Margaux speaks about why she is drawn to writing about friendship and food, how she uses her sense to dive into the English language and why she has chosen to write in her second language. We also talk a bit about her day job as a translation rights literary agent.
Links
The Yellow Kitchen - Margaux Vialleron
The Salmon Pink Kitchen Podcast
The Salmon Pink Kitchen Newsletter
Penny's instagram @pennywincer
Contact Penny
40 min
October 19, 2022 Beth Kempton on how to write fearlessly
Beth Kempton is a Japanologist, a best selling author and a writing mentor whose books have been translated into 24 languages. Her Latest book The Way of the Fearless Writer challenges the assumption that writing must be a struggle and filled with suffering. We talk about why it's important to know why we write, learning to let go in our writing, when to share our work (and when not to) and learning to trust in writing as a practice.
Links
The Way of the Fearless Writer - Beth Kempton
Freedom Seeker - Beth Kempton
Wabi Sabi - Beth Kempton

Do What You Love For Life - Writing classes with Beth Kempton
The Fearless Writer Podcast

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1 hr 5 min
October 05, 2022 REPLAY: Huma Qureshi on short stories and taking fiction seriously
Huma Qureshi is a former Guardian and Observer journalist and is the author of the memoir How We Met and her latest book Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love, is a short story collection about the distance between people - between mothers and daughters and between lovers. It includes the "The Jam Maker" which won the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize 2020. We talk about what drove Huma to set herself the challenge of writing 10 short stories in a fairly short period of time, the importance of short story prizes as a way of setting yourself deadlines and challenges, and how motherhood both affected her confidence as a writer but also gave her an urgency to get the words on to the page.
Links
Miniature Worlds: Writing short stories with Huma Qureshi
Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love - Huma Qureshi
How We Met - Huma Qureshi
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
A Ghost in the Throat - Doireann Ni Ghriofa

You can find Huma Qureshi on instagram @humaqureshiwriter

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You can check out all the book recommendations from the podcast at our bookshop on bookshop.org which helps support independent booksellers
55 min

About Not Too Busy To Write

From the publisher's feed

Penny Wincer is not too busy to write. Except of course, sometimes she is too busy to write as much as she would like. Join Penny as she has conversations with other writers about writing, publishing and creativity whilst juggling all the demands on them such as motherhood, caring and other paid work.